The increased use of electrically controllable braking and steering systems in motor vehicles and sensors for detecting possible obstacles in the vehicle surroundings makes systems for avoiding and/or reducing the consequences of collisions with obstacles possible.
Surroundings detection systems such as radar and/or video sensors make early recognition of potential collisions with obstacles possible, for example. These collisions may then be avoided or their consequences may be reduced via timely warning of the driver or by influencing the movement of the vehicle via controllable braking and/or steering systems. Sensor systems, for example, a video sensor with whose help objects may be detected and/or classified, are of particular relevance. Sensors for detecting the vehicle surroundings include, for example, ultrasound, radar, lidar, and/or video systems. Hydraulic units of ESP systems, actively controllable brake boosters, electrohydraulic braking systems or, in the future, electromechanical braking systems are/will be available, for example, as controllable subsystems of braking systems for active pressure buildup. Active steering systems or steer-by-wire systems (SBW) may be considered for influencing steering.
Collision avoidance systems or systems for reducing the consequences of collisions intervene in the movement of the vehicle via active, driver-independent braking and/or steering intervention. European Patent No. EP 891 903, for example, describes a device which brakes the vehicle automatically exactly when a collision with an obstacle may no longer be avoided by using the vehicle systems to their physical limits.
Unpublished German Patent No. DE 102005003274.5 shows an evasion assistant in which measures are described for calculating whether or not a collision is avoidable by braking only. Furthermore, an approach is provided for calculating a combined braking and steering intervention for evading the obstacle. These proposed calculations may also be used in the procedure described in the following and are therefore part of the procedure described in the following.